California retirement system’s new imaging/workflow setup saves $1 million annually in paper storage costs alone.
CalPERS is the largest retirement
system in the country, providing benefits to 1.3 million active and retired
California public employees and their families. But it was finding that the way
it handled the 52 million paper documents that pass through its doors annually
needed to be retired as well.
Not only was customer response
time sluggish, since CalPERS employees needed to search through massive cabinets
of paper files before they could find the appropriate documents and handle a
request, but California was pushing all of its state agencies to be more
Web-enabled to take advantage of the staffing and other savings from moving
government functions online.
The solution, CalPERS decided,
was to get out of the paper business. The agency implemented a new FileNet
document management system, together with FileNet’s imaging capabilities, to
convert its massive amount of paper documents to images that could easily be
tagged and searched by keyword. At the same time, it implemented workflow via
FileNet’s WorkFlo Services to ensure that high-volume and critical business
processes could be handled efficiently. Overall, the agency adopted several
FileNet technologies, including its Panagon Image services, WorkFlo Services,
Content Services, Process Analyzer and eProcess functionality.
The results were stellar. Not
only are responses to routine benefits questions handled in minutes (vs. two
weeks under the old system), but now the agency no longer needs to pay to store
those massive paper files, resulting in a storage cost savings of more than $1
million annually. The workflow efficiencies have also reduced the agency’s
operating costs by up to 30% and increased staff efficiency by 40%.
According to California CIO Clark
Kelso, the CalPERS team’s success is one that should be adopted by all state
agencies. “Their success in recognizing the potential for IT to simultaneously
reduce costs and enhance service serves as a paradigm for state
government,” he said.
And the best part? In October,
CalPERS’ new system was named the Best Mission-Critical Application Solution at
this year’s FileNet Innovation Awards.
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